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The Human Brand: How We Relate to People, Products and Companies

“This insightful book explains in simple terms why trust is at the heart of every healthy relationship – not just between people, but between companies and their customers. THE HUMAN BRAND will cause you to completely rethink your current approach to customer relationships, and that’s a good thing.”

--Tom Long, CEO, MillerCoors

THE SURPRISING PSYCHOLOGY OF CUSTOMER CHOICE AND LOYALTY

New Book Offers Unconventional Insights On How We Perceive, Judge And

Behave Toward Companies And Brands

People everywhere describe their relationships with brands of all kinds in deeply personal ways – they hate their bank, love their smartphone, and think the cable company is out to get them.

Humans make two types of judgment calls rather quickly and accurately: What are the intentions of other people toward me?, and, How capable are they of carrying out those intentions? In the academic world of social psychology, these two areas of social perception are known as warmth and competence -- they drive most human emotions and behavior toward other people.

Through their original research, Chris Malone, Managing Partner of Fidelum Partners, and Susan T. Fiske, Ph.D., a renowned social psychologist at Princeton University, have discovered that customers choose companies and brands in the same way that they naturally perceive, judge, and behave toward one another – on the basis of their warmth and competence.

In their new book THE HUMAN BRAND: How We Relate to People, Products and Companies (Jossey-Bass / October 2013), Malone and Fiske, explain why upstarts such as Honest Tea, Domino’s, Lululemon, Zappos, and Chobani have surged in popularity while many traditionally dominant companies and brands have been flagging.

Drawing on decades of experience, as well as proprietary research that studied over 5,000 adults in the United States and over 45 leading brands, including icons such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Tropicana, Hershey’s, and Mercedes, Malone and Fiske have created an essential book for every business reader.

In THE HUMAN BRAND, Malone and Fiske offer ground breaking insights into the psychology of customer choice and loyalty, including:

Why our immediate future so strongly resembles our distant past

Why we expect companies and brands to commit to us first

The simple and reliable way to demonstrate warmth and competence

How faceless commerce leads to a focus on discounts

What we learn from the people behind the things we buy

Why mistakes and crises are a golden loyalty opportunity

And they offer three fundamental imperatives for action:

Become More Self-Aware of Warmth & Competence Perceptions

Embrace Significant Change in Business Practices

Fundamentally Shift Priorities to Balance the Interests of Multiple Stakeholders

“Our research also documents how the big banks, oil companies, and telecom firms have all developed policies and practices that are fundamentally at odds with the spontaneous triggers of human trust and loyalty,” write Malone and Fiske. “The internet, social networks, and mobile communications all have worked together to undermine previously powerful forces in the economy. We contend that a new Relationship Renaissance between customer and company is emerging out of the Middle Ages of Marketing. Customers now have near-instantaneous power to hold companies and brands accountable for their words and actions. That power will continue to grow in the years ahead.”

THE HUMAN BRAND details how market leading companies and brands are putting the best interests of customers ahead of their own to forge genuine, lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with them.It is an essential must-read for those who want a truly evolved understanding of how to earn loyalty and create lasting relationships with customers.